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“Towards a New Narrative”: Symposium on Scottish Sacred Music

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Well, I’m now preparing for the forthcoming Symposium on Scottish Sacred Music at Pluscarden Abbey, near Inverness, Scotland.

Over 150 people are expected to come to this Benedictine Abbey for the three-day event, which will include talks and recitals of sacred music from Scotland.Day 1: Tuesday 1 September 2009: Mediaeval & Renaissance Scottish Sacred Music up to 1560My own paper will be on other renaissance polyphony from 16th-century Scotland (i.e. not music by Robert Carvor/Carver, whose work will be dealt with by Jamie Reid-Baxter), especially music from the Wode Partbooks and the Dunkeld Music Book , including music by David Peebles. Some of this will draw on my MMus dissertation (University of Surrey, 1998) and my article “Musick fyne” (first appeared in Church Music Quarterly, June 2005).

Other papers that day will be given by Warwick Edwards (“Mediaeval Chant Manuscripts from St. Andrews Cathedral and Inchcolm Priory”) and John Harper (“The Bridge between Chant and Polyphony”).

The evening concert will feature some of the music from these manuscripts.

Day 2: Wednesday 2 September 2009: the period from 1560 to the early 20th centurySpeakers include Douglas Galbraith, Elmslie Nimmo and Frances Wilkins

Day 3: Thursday 3 September 2009: the Modern EraSpeakers include John Bell, Graeme Hair and James MacMillan.

In case you can’t get to the Symposium (or wish to read up a bit about the music first), a very readable account of Scotland’s Music can be found in this excellent book by John Purser, offering a very readable history of the traditional and classical music of Scotland from early times to the present day.